1,056 research outputs found
Simbol-X Background Minimization: Mirror Spacecraft Passive Shielding Trade-Off Study
The present work shows a quantitative trade-off analysis of the Simbol-X
Mirror Spacecraft (MSC) passive shielding, in the phase space of the various
parameters: mass budget, dimension, geometry, and composition. A simplified
physical (and geometrical) model of the sky screen, implemented by means of a
GEANT4 simulation, has been developed to perform a performance-driven mass
optimization and evaluate the residual background level on Simbol-X focal
plane.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the second
Simbol-X International Symposium "Simbol-X - Focusing on the Hard X-ray
Universe", AIP Conf. Proc. Series, P. Ferrando and J. Rodriguez ed
The AGILE gamma-ray satellite software system: real-time analysis and Apps for multi-wavelength and multi-messenger astronomy
I describe in this paper the AGILE real-time analysis (RTA), that is, the software system developed for the AGILE -ray Mission operations and scientific observations. Important tasks of the software include scientific alerts and follow-up observations in the multi-wavelength and multi-messenger context. Key elements of the AGILE RTA are a flexible software architecture, an efficient software management workflow, and an optimised team management implemented by the AGILE Team in more than 20 years of work. All these elements contributed to the success of the AGILE Mission, and they also constitute the basis for future projects of high-energy observatories. We also describe the smartphone APP AGILEScience that displays the scientific results of the Mission for professional and outreach purposes: it is an essential element of the AGILE Ground System and a unique “gate” to the -ray sky for the public audience
The AFISS web platform for the correlation of high-energy transient events
In the multi-messenger era, facilities share their results with the
scientific community through networks such as the General Coordinates Network
to study transient phenomena (e.g., Gamma-ray bursts) and implement real-time
analysis pipelines to detect transient events, reacting to science alerts
received from other observatories. The fast analysis of transient events is
crucial for detecting counterparts of gravitational waves and neutrino
candidate events. In this context, collecting scientific results from different
high-energy satellites observing the same transient event represents a key step
in improving the statistical significance of the high-energy candidate events.
This project aims to develop a system and a web platform to share information
and scientific results of transient events between high-energy satellites with
INAF participation (AGILE, FERMI, INTEGRAL and SWIFT). The AFISS platform
implements the COMET VO- Event broker and provides a web portal where the users
visualize the list of transient events detected by multi-messenger facilities
and received through the GCN. The web portal could show, for each event, a
summary of the scientific results shared by the real-time analysis pipelines
and a list of time-correlated transient events. In addition, the platform is
ready to receive results from participating facilities on sub-threshold events
(STE) that cannot be shared with the community due to the low statistical
significance. If the platform finds a time correlation between two or more
STEs, it can promote them to science alerts. The web interface shows the list
of STEs with possible time correlation with other STEs or science alerts. The
platform notifies the users with an email when a new transient event is
received.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and System
XXXII (31 October-4 November 2022
Evaluating the Maximum Likelihood Method for Detecting Short-Term Variability of AGILE gamma-ray Sources
The AGILE space mission (whose instrument is sensitive in the energy ranges
18-60 keV, and 30 MeV - 50 GeV) has been operating since 2007. Assessing the
statistical significance of time variability of gamma-ray sources above 100 MeV
is a primary task of the AGILE data analysis. In particular, it is important to
check the instrument sensitivity in terms of Poisson modeling of the data
background, and to determine the post-trial confidence of detections. The goals
of this work are: (i) evaluating the distributions of the likelihood ratio test
for "empty" fields, and for regions of the Galactic plane; (ii) calculating the
probability of false detection over multiple time intervals. In this paper we
describe in detail the techniques used to search for short-term variability in
the AGILE gamma-ray source database. We describe the binned maximum likelihood
method used for the analysis of AGILE data, and the numerical simulations that
support the characterization of the statistical analysis. We apply our method
to both Galactic and extra-galactic transients, and provide a few examples.
After having checked the reliability of the statistical description tested with
the real AGILE data, we obtain the distribution of p-values for blind and
specific source searches. We apply our results to the determination of the
post-trial statistical significance of detections of transient gamma-ray
sources in terms of pre-trial values. The results of our analysis allow a
precise determination of the post-trial significance of {\gamma}-ray sources
detected by AGILE.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, 8 tables, accepted to A&
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